Balvenie Castle

The Comyns built the first castle, then called Mortlach, which
was destroyed or much reduced by the forces of Robert the Bruce in 1308.
Balvenie passed to the Douglases, then to John Stewart, Earl of Atholl,
son-in-law of the Earl of Huntly, in 1455. The castle was used by the Duke of
Montrose during his campaign of 1644-5 against the Covenanters, and it was
nearby that a Covenanter force, led by Alexander Leslie, defeated a Royalist
army in 1649. The castle was abandoned in 1724, and the ruins were put into the
care of the state in 1929.

The 4th Earl of Atholl's new residence, built about 1550, was built on the palace
plan, that is with a suite of rooms placed horizontally, as in the royal palaces
of the Stewart kings at Stirling, Linlithgow and Edinburgh. The Earl's own
lodging was on the first floor. His lady, Elizabeth Gordon, Countess of Atholl,
had the apartment on the floor above. Both were similar with a sequence of three
rooms: Hall, Outer Chamber and Inner Chamber. All were reception rooms, graded
according to the rank of those being received. The Hall, the least restricted
room, also served as the dining room; the Outer Chamber beyond was the ancestor
of the drawing room and may have housed the earl's imposing chair and canopy of
state, his symbol of lordship; the Inner Chamber through the far end was his
bed-chamber. When Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here on 4th and 5th September 1562, she may
have occupied the countess's lodging on the floor above.